BMW Active E

[tommolog]

I see David posted some pics of me getting my ActiveE. I've had it a couple days now and I did a blog post about my initial impressions if anyone is interested:
ActiveE Mobility: Driving an Electric BMW 1-Series: BMW ActiveE Dosen't Disappoint!

 

[smorgasbord]

I've had it a couple days now and I did a blog post about my initial impressions if anyone is interested:
ActiveE Mobility: Driving an Electric BMW 1-Series: BMW ActiveE Dosen't Disappoint!

Nice blog article. You might want to fix the spelling of "Doesn't," though.

When you did the run out of juice test, did the car warn you as the range dropped? Did it reduce power at some point? Alarm bells? And, assuming you drove it until it died, what was the dying behavior - did you just coast? Did you lose hydraulic breaking pressure? And, what did you do then? Push it to the nearest outlet?

Sorry for all the questions. I've never driven my Roadster to the end of its range. I have driven ICE cars to an empty tank (old Triumph Spitfire with broken gas gauge), which was OK for carbs, but I hear does damage for fuel injection. When the car coughed on the road I remembered that I had forgotten to put gas in it (I was using the Trip odometer as a rough gauge), and still had enough gas at that point to get safely over into a safe parking spot. Would you have had that opportunity in the ActiveE?

 

[JRP3]

Also what is your sense of the range/efficiency compared to the Mini? Personally I'd like to see a bit more reserve on EV's in general, certainly more than a mile.

 

[tommolog]

Smorgasbord: Thanks for the spelling catch. Notice I posted it 12:30am last night, plus the title doesn't have spell check. When you have only 25 miles of estimated range left you get the first warning, an audible chime and an icon on the dash. Then another chime and icon comes on with about ten miles left and that icon stays lit. Then when you approach zero you get a warning to find a plug and finally when it hits zero a yellow battery icon lights up and the center stack has a warning that the car is going into reduced power mode and you need to find a plug ASAP. The car only went a mile further and it started to lose power and slowed down to about 5 mph. I was able to pull into a gas station (Oh the irony) and plug in an outside outlet for about an hour which gave me enough to get home(I was really close). I spoke to people at BMW about this and was told the cars they tested went about 6 miles after the SOC read zero. I think part of my problem is I was going up a steep incline and it was 25 degrees outside. They probably tested theirs on flat ground in 70 degree weather.

JRP3: My feeling is the range is definitely better in cold weather because I can precondition and the MINI had really no thermal management so the cold really killed the range. I think it may be slightly less in the warmer weather than the MINI I could average 100 to 110 miles in warm weather in the MINI and I'm expecting 90 to 100 in the ActiveE. EPA MPGe rating is 107 city, 96 hwy and 102 combined.

 

[mpt]

Registration for the public has opened up: http://bmwactivatethefuture.com/register/

 

[smorgasbord]

MSRP of $60,375.00

Closed-end, 24-month lease required:
$499 First months payment
$2,250 Down payment
$0 Security Deposit
$2,749 Cash due at signing

You can calculate residual value from that, I believe.

 

[Lloyd]

MSRP of $60,375.00

Closed-end, 24-month lease required:
$499 First months payment
$2,250 Down payment
$0 Security Deposit
$2,749 Cash due at signing

You can calculate residual value from that, I believe.

You need the interest rate charged to the principal amount to calculate the residual. US laws do not require this to be disclosed!

 

[mpt]

If you're in/around Princeton NJ, we're meeting up for the Revenge screening where we'll have one or two Es to look at.

EV meet-up: Princeton NJ Revenge of the Electric Car screening Saturday Jan 28th at 7

 

[tommolog]

Residual value is 84%, at least that's what my contract said. I've put 1,000 miles on mine so far, lot's of fun!

 

[Tesla 940]

84% Residual

Residual value is 84%, at least that's what my contract said. I've put 1,000 miles on mine so far, lot's of fun!

Are you sure of this 84%? Seems extremely high at the end of 24 months! I would have expected something like 70-75%

 

[Lloyd]

That's only 2% interest, they had to bring it back at 84% to keep the payment down.

 

[tommolog]

Are you sure of this 84%? Seems extremely high at the end of 24 months! I would have expected something like 70-75%

Yes, it's on the lease contract.

 

[ggr]

People at my work (Qualcomm in San Deigo) were among the first and most enthusiastic Leaf adopters. Now, according to our mailing list, many of them are becoming "Lea'vers" and signing up to be "Electronauts" (that is, the trial of the Active-E). But based on what I've seen here and on that mailing list, they're nuts! A baseline Model S would seem to be a far superior car. I think BMW might still be better than Tesla at marketing, at least to more traditional car buyers.

 

[ipdamages]

when i spoke to rich steinberg (bmw's north america manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy) in september, he told me that 100 miles is more of a maximum range under ideal conditions, and he can actually recharge his activee up to about 92 or 93 miles. to me that was unacceptable except for a very limited use of to and from work, or driving around town, but with constant range anxiety. so ultimately i see the activee for what bmw has described it to me - part of their continued development efforts that they see leading to the i3 and other electrics, with the activee taking the next step after the mini e.

if the activee was as far as things were going to progress, bmw's electrics would, imho, never be more than a novelty or small niche player. even in the case of the model S i expect the public to be resistant due to range (combined with the price tag), but i see the gap as significantly closed with the model S such that it is a real alternative for those who can afford it (with greater range, more space, better performance...).

i also agree that BMW has done a fine job of marketing the activee and used its strong brand to enhance the desirability of the activee. hopefully they can continue to make progress such that the i3 is a real alternative for the masses.

 

[Robert.Boston]

BMW and its brethren ICE specialists have every interest in painting BEVs as niche vehicles, useful for two things: 1. around-town errands and 2. meeting the OEM's fleet MPG requirements. It takes a company like Tesla to make a car that actually challenges the ICE in their core markets.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

It takes a company like Tesla to make a car that actually challenges the ICE in their core markets.

that will only happen if Tesla starts taking a global view (as companies like BMW do).... from what I've seen recently, Tesla are one of the most US centric car companies on the planet.

 

[JRP3]

Why would you expect anything else from a small start up company such as Tesla which has limited production and service capacity? It has to cost less per unit to sell, deliver, and service if needed the vehicles in the home country, and they need to keep costs in line as much as possible at this stage in the game. The US is a huge market and it's also the home market.

 

[stopcrazypp]

that will only happen if Tesla starts taking a global view (as companies like BMW do).... from what I've seen recently, Tesla are one of the most US centric car companies on the planet.

On the Active E, I don't see how BMW is any less US-centric at this stage. The Active E comes with a J1772 plug only, while the base MSRP is higher than the base MSRP for the Model S (and you get a smaller, slower car with less range). I don't see anywhere near the same amount of outrage/hand wringing over that decision as over Tesla's decision for a proprietary plug and no supercharging on the base model.

The US focus by Tesla may have to do with logistical reasons (esp. for Model S, which will be almost entirely made/assembled in the USA, while for the Roadster they had gliders made in the UK). Other large companies already have or plan to build factories all over the world.

It just makes more sense to focus on the US first, especially given the US government is currently the leader in plug-in subsidies (heck, the Model S wouldn't exist without US government support). Even the Leaf, the Volt, the Focus EV, Fit EV, Active E, RAV4 EV, etc. isn't an exception (even though Nissan and GM do plan to build factories in the UK). And currently it's obvious in terms of a market for electric passenger cars, the US is the leader (Japan being second). The iMIEV (and its various clones) depended heavily on fleet sales to get a significant amount of orders in Europe and was still easily eclipsed by the Leaf, which was almost entirely based on Japanese and US sales to consumers (not fleets). That shows US sales are absolutely critical to EV success, while sales elsewhere (except for Japan, for the Japanese based companies) are not.

That said, I wanted to once again point out, there are still quite a bit of questions marks left in terms of the Model S launch in the US, much less the European one, so I'm wary of drawing too many conclusions before the Model S is in consumer hands.

 

[jkirkebo]

It just makes more sense to focus on the US first, especially given the US government is currently the leader in plug-in subsidies (heck, the Model S wouldn't exist without US government support).

A number two maybe, but not the leader. Norwegian subsidies (or rather registration tax breaks) are such that a Leaf costs the same as a basic VW Golf 1.6TDI or Ford Focus 1.6TDCI. The base Model S will be cheaper than a BMW 520d and the top of the line Model S will be less than half the price of a BMW 550i.

BEVs made up 2% of Norwegian car sales in 2011. In 2012 the percentage may approach 5% if enough cars can be delivered.

 

[stopcrazypp]

A number two maybe, but not the leader. Norwegian subsidies (or rather registration tax breaks) are such that a Leaf costs the same as a basic VW Golf 1.6TDI or Ford Focus 1.6TDCI. The base Model S will be cheaper than a BMW 520d and the top of the line Model S will be less than half the price of a BMW 550i.

BEVs made up 2% of Norwegian car sales in 2011. In 2012 the percentage may approach 5% if enough cars can be delivered.

Perhaps subsidies is not the right word, but I'm counting grants and loans by the US government also (the AVTM loans are $25 billion, Obama had a $2.4 billion grant package for plug-in and battery manufacturers, $230 million grant on "the EV Project" to build charging infrastructure, in addition to the $7.5k tax credit per EV). I don't think any country in the world has spent anywhere near the same amount on plug-ins.